a small fact
by seilleanmor
Summary: An Always AU, in which Ryan calls, and this time Castle answers. A two-shot, co-authored by seilleanmor and BerkieLynn
1. Chapter 1

out of the over seven billion people in the world,

at least one

will press you up against a wall

and make love to you until your spine hurts.

it's a small fact

but something you can carry with you

like a moon hidden away in the darkening sky

whenever you're feeling alone.

_**a small fact**_**, writingsforwinter**

* * *

For _The Midnight Club_.

You guys are home, joy on the worst days, light in the darkness. Thank you.

* * *

"C'mon, we don't want to miss her speech." Castle calls up the stairs, glancing at his watch. "Or the entire graduation." He mutters, pressing his mouth into a seam to stop the spill of desperation.

Please, please let him not miss his daughter's graduation. Especially since her mother – ridiculous, flighty woman – is not going to be there at all.

He sets his hand at the railing to keep himself upright, letting go almost immediately at the too-shrill peal of his mother, as if the very sound of her burns. "I'm almost ready."

Shifting his weight, Castle watches the spill of dusk over his newly polished shoes. His loft is spun gold, the weather finally starting to turn. It makes him think of the beach, his Hamptons house and the give of sand under his body, how the warmth licks at his skin.

He thought, maybe-

No. No movie night, no somnolent seduction. Not the quiet transition into_ them_ he finally let himself hope for.

He was going to take her coat at the door. Kiss her cheek and guide her to his couch. Sit nearer than he should and take her hand because that's a thing that he's allowed to do now. And then when the movie was over he was going to tell her again.

Tell her without her dying underneath him, without the endless cobalt mist of the sky and the too-hard edge of grass at his knuckles.

He _did_ tell her again.

And it's not enough.

His phone cuts swathes through his self-pity, death swelling in between the notes. Not that it matters. He doesn't want to answer.

Can't speak to her; have her confirm the details of their ending.

Only, it's not her. It's not her smile gazing back at him, the photograph he took without her even seeming to notice.

It's been killing him all year. He only has one photograph of Kate. So the caller ID and the murder board. . .it's the same one. And he _hates_ that. He wants to take photographs of her, with her. Vacation and holidays and snapshots of lazy mornings. The dappled light as it slips through the leaves, splashed onto her face in midsummer.

His ID says it's the precinct. And she never calls him from the precinct phone. Ever. It can't be her. Ryan, then? Since Esposito will most definitely be on Kate's side.

God, he hates that there are sides. Hates the rift in their team, hates his stupid heart for loving her. Hates her. More than a little bit, right now.

Rick swallows his pride, feels the thick sweetness of it swelling in protest, and answers the phone. "Castle."

"Oh, you picked up." Ryan says half to himself, the thin edge of scarcely pieced-together control brittle in his voice. "Hey."

"Ryan. What is it?" He manages to grit out, the tremor of it rattling over his jaw and up, coursing through his temples. "I have to leave in a minute."

"Right, right. Alexis' graduation. But this is life or death."

Oh God. Please no.

But Ryan's voice isn't thick with grief, his words don't break, scattered and hurting. Surely, surely, the first thing he would have said would have been _Beckett's down_.

The same despair, the same disbelief as that day a year ago. How it didn't seem to really touch any of them until the hospital. Wasn't happening. Just could not be happening. Not to her.

"_Kate_."

Kevin cuts in, must hear the gutting panic in Castle's voice. "No. Well, yeah, Beckett and Espo both. Right now they're fine, but they just left here to walk straight into the sniper's nest."

Castle has to close his eyes against that, pressing his free hand to them and feeling the wash of terror down his face, pooling against his hardwood. "Ryan, I can't. I'm- I'm done."

"I understand that. I don't know exactly what went down between you two. But I know Beckett. I know Beckett when she's in the thick of her mother's case."

Somehow, that makes it worse. That it's not just him. That Ryan too knows how hopeless his crusade is.

He's seen glimpses inside of the wall all year, cool and fresh like spring water whenever she allowed him to dislodge another brick. But he's just been making pointless holes, places where he can glance inside and see just how good it would be with her.

No structural damage.

"She's not going to listen to me. I told her. . .how I feel. And it's not enough. What makes you think it would be any different today?" The growl of despair turns to dust against the sentry row of his teeth, safely tucked inside.

He refuses to hurt over this woman. She doesn't get to do that to him. Not anymore.

He's- he's done.

"If you can't do it for her, do it for Javi. Please, Castle."

Yes, thank you, he hears Ryan's desolation. But this has never been his place. Pretending he fits in their team, pretending he's there for cases and murder and the thrill of the solve, and not because every stupid, pathetic little piece of him yearns for her.

So much that now, losing her, tastes foul. It churns in his gut, warped fingers grasping at the foothold of his ribs.

Castle sucks in a breath, tries valiantly to push it all back. "What exactly are you asking me to do?"

"I might have to tell Gates. Not everything, not about Roy. Just enough that I can get backup. I can't save them both by myself."

"And that's where I come in?" He says, stupidly proud that his voice doesn't waver.

"Castle, they need you. Especially Kate. Look, I know she's being stupid running into this blind. I understand that you don't want to watch her get herself killed. But she needs you to prove that you'll never give up on her."

A brittle laugh spills out without his permission, his mother descending the stairs just in time to watch it shatter against the hardwood. "I've been proving that for four years and it's not enough."

"Four years. You've stuck with her through worse than this. Why give up now?"

Because he's hit breaking point. Because he can't watch her die again. Because-

Damn it. This is not the way to prove himself worthy. Kate thrives on evidence, needs it to truly believe.

Show, don't tell.

Yes, he said he loves her. Yes, he's been doing his best to show her for years now. But giving up so easily, letting her win?

That is not a man who is worthy of Kate.

"Ryan. My daughter's graduation. I can't abandon her." Castle scrubs his hands over his face, meeting his mother's eyes.

Her brows are furrowed, all of that timeless elegance she employs so easily surging up as she moves towards him.

"When does it start?"

"An hour and a half." Castle grunts, waving off his mother's hand. She settles for straightening his tie, slender fingers moving to rest at his lapel.

There's a moment of quiet, far-away clattering that Castle can only assume is Ryan's keyboard, and then he's back. "Hotel they're headed to is five minutes from your place. And Alexis is at Marlowe, right?"

"Yeah."

More typing. More breathless Ryan. "Ten minutes on the subway to there from the hotel. You'd have time."

"Ryan, I don't know if I can." Maybe doing this would just be saying _sure, Kate_. Stamp all over him, take everything he has to offer and give nothing. He'll still come back.

Kevin sucks in a breath through his teeth, tinny and uncomfortable over the phone line. "Castle. You're a part of this team. And we need you."

Crap.

Okay. Damn it. "Text me the address." Castle grunts and hangs up, dropping his phone back into his pocket.

"Richard, darling, what on earth?" His mother says, snatching her purse from the side table and hooking her arm through his, dragging him over to the door.

He shakes her off, gritting his teeth. "Mother, something's come up. You go on ahead and save me a seat. I promise I'll make it on time."

"You'd better. Alexis has already been abandoned by her mother. Don't you dare abandon her too." His mother stabs a finger into his chest, almost growling at him.

He stumbles backwards, coming up against the front door. "I'm not. But Kate needs me."

"Kate's_ using_ you, Richard. When are you going to let her go?"

Castle digs his fingernails into the tender flesh of his palms and tries desperately to keep his voice even. "I can't let her go. She's. . .too much."

His mother sighs at him, disappointment sharp in her eyes, but she's reaching around him to open the door and usher him out.

He settles his mother into the waiting car, dutifully pressing a kiss to her cheek. He ignores the set of her jaw, the unwavering line of her shoulders, every part of her screaming that he's making a mistake without saying a word. She has long ago figured out that trying to talk reason with her son is futile when it comes to Kate Beckett. He watches the car glide away, tracking it until it melts into the sea of traffic, the ethereal haze of heat from the pavement filling his vision in its wake.

He shakes his head to bring the world back into focus and raises his arm to flag down a cab.

Kate. Kate needs him.

Maybe she'll actually listen this time. Maybe.

* * *

It might have been the panicked and desperate look on his face but the cabbie gets him there in three minutes flat. Castle peels off more bills than he knows is necessary and shoves them at the man in thanks. Ryan's pacing in front of the dilapidated building when he slides out of the car but perks up at the sight of him.

"Beckett's cruiser is across the street and a homeless guy said he saw two 'cop looking people' matching their description go in a few minutes ago," he calls out as Castle draws near.

"What if they found him? What if we're walking into an ambush?" He cranes his neck to take in the façade of the building, unease taking up residence in his gut.

"What if they didn't? What if we can stop them?"

Castle looks down at him, the earnest hope in the man's eyes shining like a lighthouse through his storm of fear. God bless Kevin Ryan and his unending well of optimism.

He nods at the younger man, mouth set in a grim line and Ryan nods back before turning to enter the building, Castle following closely behind. They sweep each floor quickly, that sickening fear twining further up his throat each time they find nothing.

"Last floor," he breathes as they mount the now familiar landing, every floor identical to the last. The difference here is there are no other steps overhead climbing higher, only the half flight in front of them.

Ryan moves carefully, the grip on his weapon unwavering as he goes. "Castle, I see something," he whispers and the writer moves carefully up another step until his vision crests the top. A guy in a suit lays motionless in the hall, a pair of legs sticking out of a door across from him. "I'm going in," Ryan whispers, the words barely registering in Castle's brain before he's quietly and efficiently stalking down the hall.

Castle's in the middle of being completely aware that he is without a weapon when he hears Ryan's voice, hushed and insistent.

"Javi?" A moan floats down the hallway. "Where's Beckett?"

She's not in there?

Weapon be damned, Castle hurries up the rest of the stairs and down to the open doorway, finds Ryan crouched over his partner.

"I swept the place, she's not here," Ryan tells him, an apology in his tone.

Castle backs out into the hallway again, eyes raking up and down the expanse of cheap tile almost as if his brain is willing her to appear. The next best thing does though, another flight stairs at the opposite end of the hall.

He doesn't think, he doesn't ask Ryan's opinion because he knows, this is where she went. He sees the bullet holes in the wood but presses on, takes the stairs two at a time, pushes carefully through the door at the top, stepping onto the concrete when he doesn't immediately encounter danger.

The roof is empty.

He takes a few more steps out, disappointment cloying his senses, stealing his breath, occluding his vision. He was so sure, so positive this is where she'd be that finding nothing but this empty expanse is heart breaking. He drops into a crouch when his knees will no longer hold him upright, his head in his hands, swallowing down bitter tears.

"Beckett!" Her name tears from his throat, grief spilling from every pore, unable to be contained.

And then he hears it.

"_Castle!"_

He snaps upright, his legs carrying him forward before he can even contemplate if his mind is playing tricks on him.

"Beckett!" he yells again, willing her reply.

And it comes.

"_Castle, I'm here! No, oh God!"_

He still doesn't see her, her voice is slightly muffled as he runs across the rooftop.

"Castle!" His name is sharp and frantic now.

And he knows where she is.

"Beckett, hang on!" It's a plea, an admonishment, as he throws his upper body to the edge of the building.

"Castle!" she screams again as he swings an arm down, reaching for her forearm, his hand barely closing around her wrist as her slender fingers slide from their perch, his other hand quickly reaching out to get a better grip on her. Her feet scrabble against the building, her free arm grasping for purchase on the brick to help. Together, they haul her over the edge, tumbling inelegantly onto the rooftop.

They lay there for a moment, he on his side, her on her back, breathing heavily, great gulps of air testing the limits of their ribcages. And then she throws herself at him, one arm hooked around his neck, the other banded around his back, her legs tangled with his, the long line of her body pressed to him. He doesn't hesitate to embrace her in return, crushing her to his chest in gratitude, relief roaring in his ears so loud that he doesn't hear it at first.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry, Castle. I'm sorry," she's babbling, the stream of apology only broken by her hiccupping sobs.

"Shh," he soothes, running a hand over her hair. "Kate, it's okay, I'm here."

He gets an arm secure around her back and sits up, lifting her with him. Carefully kept away from the building's edge, he cradles her cheek in his palm. Kate pillows her head against his shoulder, both her hands fisted in his shirt, and her bones clatter violently, the tremors all the way up into her jaw.

His mouth pressed to her temple, Castle feels the thread of tension there too, a full-body consumption. "He got away."

"I don't care." She grits out, sitting back on her knees to look at him. Three fingers come up to dust over his cheekbone, the gossamer skin underneath his eye. "Castle, I don't care. I almost died, and all I could think about was you."

Rick stares at her, his jaw going slack with shock. What is she saying? This case, the case that has defined her for thirteen years, comes second to him? Please God let that be what she means. "Kate?"

"I just want you."

Oh God. Oh, he needs her. He needs her right now.

He cups her cheek again, sweeping his thumb under her eye and trying desperately to breathe through the sucking tide of lust. She's so soft, limp with relief and shifting closer. And then she's sliding her knee over his thighs and settling herself in his lap.

"_Castle_." She whispers, clutching at his shoulders. And before he can think, before he can ease her off of him and remind her that there's a sniper out there and she's supposed to be mad at him and he's most definitely still a little (quite a lot) mad at _her_ she's kissing him.

And holy. Shit.

* * *

**This story is co-authored by _seilleanmor_ and _BerkieLynn_. There will be one more chapter.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Previously**

* * *

_"Castle." She whispers, clutching at his shoulders. And before he can think, before he can ease her off of him and remind her that there's a sniper out there and she's supposed to be mad at him and he's most definitely still a little (quite a lot) mad at her she's kissing him._

_And holy. Shit._

* * *

She just _goes_, taking from his mouth with no pretense. His bottom lip sucked into her mouth, she hums a moan that makes his hips nudge up into hers, his hand splayed at her jaw to tilt her head for better access. He releases her mouth, diving down to suck at her jaw, and gets the tartness of adrenaline in thundering arrhythmia and underneath musk and something so inherently Kate that he wants to wrap it around himself, bask in it.

Kate's hands fist in his hair, tugging him back up to her mouth, and he lets her have it. Her tongue slicks over his a moment and then she's pulling back, her forehead crashing against his. A smile cracks her face wide open and she leans back in to brush it against his own, tender now.

"Thank you, for being there." She says, a tear breaking free to dive down to the cliff face of her jaw.

He brushes it away with the pad of his thumb, kisses her again because there is not a force on earth that could make him stop now. "Hey, shh. It's okay. I'll always be here."

"_Why_?" She moans, clutching at his collar. "What the hell is wrong with you? Why don't you hate me?"

A laugh trips up out of him at that, his hand slipping up to cup her skull. "You are worth the battle."

"I'm not." She shakes her head at him, brushing her mouth to his once, twice. "I'm not, but I'll try to be. I'm done with this case, Castle. I mean it."

He grins at her, full and toothy and probably a little stupid-looking but she's giving it right back, touching the pad of her thumb to the corner of his smile. Rick bends his legs to get his feet underneath himself, his knees bumping up against her ass.

Mm, Kate.

Keeping his hands at her waist, he stands. She follows, pliant and gorgeous and arching onto tiptoe to rake her teeth over his throat. The smooth patch where his stubble doesn't grow, and he has to pant through it.

"I have to go. Alexis' graduation." He murmurs, drawing her in to the cove of his body. She buries her nose at his collar, her lashes brushing him like shadows as her eyes drift closed.

"Right. Right."

"Hey." He sets her back from him, cupping her chin to have her meet his eyes. In them, he watches a storm roll in, and he kisses her softly to help her weather it. "You still on for movie night?"

That earns him a grin, wide and beautiful and entirely too much. She's looking at him like maybe she could love him back. Someday soon.

"Sure. Looking forward to it. Gates is probably going to rip me to pieces, so I hope you have ice cream."

Castle makes his eyebrows dance, delighting in the peal of laughter she lets out. None of it held back any more. "You underestimate me, Detective. Ice cream, chocolate, popcorn, pizza on speed dial. All of it awaits you."

He waits for a jibe, some tease about his junk food habits, but instead he gets the warm and insistent press of her mouth. And if there was any doubt at all that she means it, that she wants him, this kiss eradicates all of it. She's careful, reverent in her exploration of him as her fingers lace at his nape.

When she steps back she bites at her lip, suddenly shy with him. "Can I. . .bring an overnight bag?"

"_Oh_." He gasps, snagging her fingers in his to tug her against him. "Are you propositioning me, Kate Beckett?"

"What if I am?" She raises an eyebrow, smirking at him. Evil, horrible tease of a woman.

"Yes, Kate. Bring an overnight bag." He glances at his watch, winces. "Crap. I have to run. Don't want to miss the ceremony. I'll see you tonight?"

She leans in for a last kiss, their hands still clasped so it's easy for her to tug him over to the stairwell door.

"You'll see me."

* * *

He makes it, barely. He missed the processional but he slides into the seat next to his mother as the principal is welcoming everyone so he considers it a win.

"Everything alright?" Martha asks in a soft whisper.

"Yeah." He keeps his answer short, afraid of the flood of words that will come out if he says more.

"And Beckett?"

"She's fine." Even those two small words cause a swell, the memory of her lips on his, the soft skin of her cheek threatening a torrent.

"Richard?"

"Hmm?"

"You're smiling."

He raises his hand to his mouth, feels the curve of his lips. Knowing that he was smiling without realizing it only stretches his mouth wider.

"I guess I am." He glances over at her when she says nothing more, finds her with an eyebrow raised in question, but simply shrugs in reply. He slides his arm across her shoulders and tugs her into his side.

"I suppose I can assume Beckett is very fine," she mutters.

"Hush," he admonishes. "I'm watching my daughter graduate."

His mind drifts during the ceremony, constantly drawn to thoughts of Kate. Real, tactile memories mix with daydreams mix with nightmares. It all seems too surreal, like something out of a movie.

He fishes his phone out of his pocket in the middle of the salutatorian's speech, ignoring the disapproving look from his mother. He taps a message out and quickly hits send before he can convince himself that he might be breaking a spell by doing so.

_Can you just reassure me that I didn't have a wild hallucination about an hour ago?_

He rests the phone against his leg and tries to focus on what the kid on stage is saying but it's a hopeless cause. Especially when the device buzzes with a response.

_If you did, I did._

He feels the smile bloom across his face, the same full, toothy grin of earlier splitting his face wide and doesn't even try to quell it. His mother shoots him a look, something that he thinks is meant to be a glare but it loses its harshness in the soft amusement of her eyes.

Yeah, he's a sap. He's completely okay with that.

He puts the phone away as the kid finishes his speech and Alexis is introduced, cheering loud enough to embarrass her if the blush that creeps up her neck is any indication. He didn't help her with the speech other than some direction and all the support that he could possibly muster for his baby girl. But this means that he hasn't heard a word of it. He understands that what she's saying is personal for her and that it applies to her current situation but he has to wonder what his daughter knows about what he's been dealing with the last few days.

"There are some people who are so much a part of us, they'll be with us no matter what. They are our solid ground, our North Star, and the small clear voices in our hearts that will be with us, always."

Kate. She'll always be with him. Always in his heart. He's always guided back towards her.

* * *

Castle almost falls over his own damn feet on his way to the door, the solid confidence of her knock reverberating all through his apartment. Bouncing from the kitchen countertop to the staircase and finally nestling in his couch.

A siren song, tugging him by the gut over to his front door. Sweet and enticing, Rick wraps his fingers at the handle and lets his eyes slip closed, revelling in the moment. It feels. . .inevitable.

Four years, and now here they are.

He will answer the door, and-

Actually, he's not going to plan it out. Not this time. Just let it happen.

He sucks in a breath through his teeth, letting it curl right down into the very bottom of his lungs and then drift back up slowly. Okay. Okay, just-

open the door, Rick.

* * *

Swinging wide, Castle finds her framed in the wood like a goddess, a work of art. Beautiful, sacrosanct Kate. He cradles her cheeks in his palms and draws her in to him, letting the soft touch of his mouth greet her.

A kiss like a sigh, crumbling into dust around the arc of her smile, and Kate lifts onto tiptoe to lace her fingers behind his neck.

"Hi."

Rick nudges his grin into her cheek, raking careful teeth over the hard edge of bone. "Mm, Kate. Hi. You taste good."

"You gonna let me inside?" She laughs, shoving at his hips to have him take a step back from her. He does, keeping his hands at her waist so he can draw her over the threshold and back into the cove of his body, finding that the creamy skin beneath her shirt makes his mouth dry.

"Never gonna let you go."

Maybe too much, most likely not at all what needs to be said. Certainly not what should be said first, but the words trip out so easily and he has to say them.

And Kate (Kate _Beckett_, _holy shit_) is not at all fazed by the voracious unspooling of his heart. She offers him a tender and gorgeous stretch of her mouth, one that falls close to unseen on his eternally expanding catalogue of Kate-smiles. "Where would I go?"

Oh, shit.

She knows, she knows, and this is not fair. She can't just exploit him. Fishing for the putrid spill of his guts on the hardwood.

They established, he thought, that even with her smiles and the laughter and the hand holding, she doesn't care enough about him to let the case go.

But now she's here in his loft and she smells so good and the taste of her is still curling underneath his tongue and he's so _confused, Kate_. No more kissing. Not until they've at least talked about what this is.

If it's anything less than forever, he'd rather not have it at all.

"Movie?"

"I was thinking," Kate tips her head to the side and chews at her lip, dark circles of moisture scattered over her shoulders where the rain kissed her as she hurried inside his building. She changed into a button down; he tries not to search for hope in the placket. "Movie later. This first."

She arches her neck, mouth already open to taste, and it kills him to step back, but he does. He does, and he keeps a hand at her lumbar curve to try and say _don't go, just listen_.

"No. Talk first. I can't. . .do this, and not know."

"Do what?" Kate murmurs, a soft smirk lurking at the very corners of her mouth. Like a marionette, all he has to do is tug at the strings to draw it up out of her. Find a human string in the cat's cradle of her heart.

That's unkind. She's more than human. She's. . .wonderful. A divination of God, here with him.

"Have sex with you." He lifts a shoulder, tries to pretend that the words, the very idea, don't send a frisson of sharp desire clattering down the foothold of his vertebrae. And he must succeed, because her laughter spills out.

Starting in her eyes and working its way over her cheeks, lacing around her mouth. Her whole face lithe with it, a web of dawn even as the sun dips slowly into the canyon of city blocks.

"You _don't _want to have sex with me?"

He lifts an eyebrow, chooses slow and serious and yeah, maybe a little seductive instead of his usual bumbling self, scurrying to make light of the curveballs she throws him. Wrapping his hands at her hips, feeling the hard edge of bones nudge at his palms, he draws her in to him. Unhurried, he brings her closer and closer still until her pelvis settles against his.

"Do you feel how bad I want you?"

Kate swallows (the work of her throat is utterly entrancing) and meets his eyes. "I feel it. So what's stopping you?"

"This for me cannot be just sex." Castle grits out. No pretense, no sidestepping, no layering what he really means to say under swathes of subtext and silent longing. "I can't _have_ you and not. . .have you."

Something falls apart in her eyes and she stretches up to set her forehead at his neck, her arms sliding around his waist to hold on. Hold him together, although his stupid, still-hurting pride won't admit that.

"Oh Castle. Castle, I'm so sorry. I know I made you think that your feelings don't matter to me, but they do. They do." She lets out a stuttering breath, like coming down from a crying jag, and Rick clutches at her.

Keeping one hand spanned wide at her back, he brings the other up to settle against her cheek. Here, like this, her heart thundering right in front of him, Richard Castle loves enough to last a lifetime.

"I know. I gave you an impossible choice."

Kate shakes her head at him, her nails sharp at the skin of his sides. Mm, okay, he's a little thicker there than he'd like. Not that she seems to mind, the whorl of her fingerprints circling him over and over. "It's not an impossible choice. Once I stopped being an idiot it was easy."

"You're never an idiot. Stubborn, sure. Not an idiot."

"Maddening, challenging and frustrating, right?" Beckett grins at him, pressing a kiss to the cleft of his chin.

Wow. They're laughing about it already? Okay. That's. . .not exactly what he expected. He'll take it, though. If it means she has also accepted the rest of what he said. "Gates ream you out?"

"She put Espo and I on administrative leave, effective immediately." Kate lifts a shoulder like it doesn't matter, but it does. It does.

"Your _job_, Kate."

She pillows her cheek at his shoulder, her arms sliding their way around his waist. "Doesn't matter. I deserve worse. And it's worth it."

When she kisses him, it's like an outpouring of all the words she can't seem to say yet, the very deepest reaches of her heart spilling out for him to taste.

"Mm. Kate, I just need you to answer me this one question, okay?"

"Sure."

He kisses her mouth, tries to press his determination into the touch of his tongue at her lower lip, the way he pours himself into her. Drawing back just enough to set his forehead against hers, Castle murmurs his very deepest insecurities into the space between them.

"When we wake up tomorrow morning, are you going to regret this?"

"Castle." Kate hums, her fingers circling his wrist. She brings his hand down from her spine and tangles her fingers through his, their knuckles clashing. "Castle, when we wake up tomorrow morning, you'd better kiss me."

* * *

**_seilleanmor_: I _adore_ berkie. Beyond comprehension. Working with her has been a blast, an exercise in driving Eli, Chole, Aisle, Aamwi, Beccaw and KT utterly insane, and above all, an adventure. I've been wondering what would have happened if Castle had just answered the damn phone for a year now, and it was so much fun to finally explore it. Thanks for reading.**

**Tumblr: **katiehoughton

**Twitter: **seilleanmor

* * *

**_BerkieLynn_: Apparently, this is what happens you make an idle comment while someone is watching Always. But it gave me the opportunity to write with Bee, whose writing I have long admired and whose friendship I have come to cherish.**

**Tumblr:** berkieryan

**Twitter: **BerkieLynn


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